Chapter 23: The Millet Dream Qi

Wang Chan’s vision was plunged into darkness, his mind overwhelmed by a tidal wave of piercing agony.

He did not understand...

Was Chen Xuan not curious about everything he had encountered? Did he not want a satisfactory explanation?

He had clearly lowered his posture, displayed goodwill, and was just about to reveal that lofty and ambitious matter when the other party... simply attacked.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the strike was a lethal blow that left no room for retreat!

"Puff! Puff! Puff!"

Chen Xuan’s eyes were sharp, his weapon in hand, moving with the speed of lightning. A dense array of puncture wounds appeared on Wang Chan’s body. Not only were his internal organs damaged, but even many of his bones had been pierced. At the same time, wisps of Gold-Virtue White Qi churned wildly within him, continuously inflicting even more horrific injuries.

"Get away!"

Wang Chan shrieked miserably. A burst of cyan-gold light erupted from his body, rendering his flesh nearly translucent. Immortal Qi rolled forth, rushing toward Chen Xuan like a crashing tidal wave.

"Whoosh!"

Chen Xuan keenly sensed a crisis and instantly pulled back, retreating more than ten meters. His gaze was grave: "What kind of Qi is this..."

He saw at a glance that this was not pure Cyan Qi, but rather emanated a golden light, suffused with the fragrant aroma of ripening grain.

This Immortal Qi did not possess an overbearing momentum; in fact, it appeared calm. Yet, Chen Xuan sensed an extreme threat from it. If he were to be tainted by it, something truly terrifying would surely happen.

"Cough, cough..."

Wang Chan hunched over on the ground like a chrysalis, his entire person looking as if he had been fished out of a pool of blood. Blood soaked his clothes and dripped onto the ground like rain: "This is the Millet-Dream Qi—"

Threads of Millet-Dream Immortal Qi, like nimble serpents, surged from Wang Chan’s seven orifices, desperately suppressing and purging the damage caused by Chen Xuan’s White Qi, racing to stitch together his shattered body.

This was an Immortal Qi far distinct from the Twelve Qi of Mountain and Sea, sublimated and transformed from Cyan Qi. It was more advanced, originating from the Millet Dream!

"Millet-Dream Qi? Is this a technique from the Millet Dream?"

Chen Xuan paced, like a leopard stalking its prey, cautiously circling Wang Chan and searching for another opportunity to strike: "No, you haven't mastered it..."

Although a faint, ancient scent of grain permeated those cyan-gold threads, Chen Xuan quickly realized it was merely a bluff, a hollow facade; the whole remained dominated by wood-attribute Cyan Qi.

Wang Chan explained, "I woke up too late and only managed to refine a sliver. But to deal with you, it is already enough—perhaps even overkill."

Chen Xuan sneered, "You are at your wit's end; why put on the facade of a master? This unfinished Millet-Dream Qi cannot save you!"

His heart grew increasingly calm. He did not rush to press his advantage, but instead patiently waited for the moment when Wang Chan would reveal a flaw...

Wait. Wang Chan was already mortally wounded; why was he waiting? To give him time to recover?

He should have pressed the advantage immediately and killed him on the spot!

"Something is wrong..."

Chen Xuan shook his head violently, sensing that something was amiss: "There is something wrong with me..."

Wang Chan’s face wore a strange smile as he mocked, "Is it truly useless? Chen Xuan, haven't you already stopped your hand and become willing to speak with me in peace?"

He had been hit!

Chen Xuan was struck with horror. A chill raced from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head. At such a critical moment of combat, he had actually found the leisure to chat with his opponent—when he had originally intended not to say a single word!

"Hah..."

He immediately tightened his grip on his weapon and lunged at Wang Chan.

"Clang!"

Suddenly, the melodious sound of a bell tolling echoed in his mind, as if crossing the boundary between the ancient and the present. Each chime struck deep into his heart, bringing a sense of serenity. The fragrance of ripening grain drifted in the breeze; the autumn chill brought a wave of fatigue, making one feel drowsy...

"So this is the Millet-Dream Qi..."

Chen Xuan stopped again, his eyelids drooping as he reined in his killing intent and hostility. Immediately afterward, countless memories of the past were stirred up, surging forward...

The first time he met the lame Chen Ganshui’s family in Little River Village, Junior Sister Yang looking at him with admiration in the martial arts hall, the three members of the Chu family he met in the dilapidated temple amidst the snow... It was not just the last three years of experience, but even fragments of his past life that began to emerge.

Chen Xuan’s heart was gradually filled with endless emptiness and extreme confusion.

The world of mortals rolled on like lightning and dew. Born into this world, life was but a great dream—what was he struggling for? It would be better to just fall asleep...

"Chen Xuan, the difference between you and me is that you are merely a genius, while I am not only a genius, but one favored by this era... a Person of Destiny."

Wang Chan stood up. His eyes had been pierced, and he saw only darkness, yet he sensed his surroundings in that void, stumbling toward Chen Xuan with a faint cyan glow flickering at his fingertips.

"I intended to subdue you as a follower, but you are stubborn and untamable; your nature is difficult to change..."

Chen Xuan’s gaze was dull, staring ahead as if his soul had left his body, becoming a wooden statue devoid of consciousness.

He saw it.

Fields of golden, glistening grain, swaying gently in the autumn wind...

...

...

Black mist surged, the jade talisman shone with white light, and the Black Cat raced toward the place known as Ox-Horn Mountain.

"The business at the Six-Desire Heaven has just ended, and now another heaven-shaking event has erupted here at the Millet Dream!"

Lady Black Cat was anxious, not even pausing when she passed the four corpses at Little Stone Lake.

There were priorities in all matters, and now that the Millet Dream affair had sprung up halfway, it was clearly more important.

Millet Dream, Six-Desire Heaven... these were all People of Destiny listed on the Small Underworld’s register.

Their connection to destiny was too great to be ignored. The bloody cases they caused had to be handled with priority; this was her duty.

As for Chen Xuan, whom she had been paying close attention to lately...

Although he was exceptionally gifted and had caused a series of bloody incidents that brought her great harvest, and he might even have had a hidden master teaching him breathing techniques, these alone were far from comparable to a Person of Destiny like the Millet Dream.

"Swish, swish!"

The earth retreated rapidly beneath the Black Cat’s feet. Ox-Horn Mountain gradually emerged in her field of vision. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks, witnessing a truly absurd scene on the mountainside.

An elderly, snow-white turtle stood in the grass like a human, its dough-like turtle head stretched high.

The old white turtle was sniffing something in the air while staring deeply at the mountain path ahead.

"An old turtle? Watching the spectacle of the Millet Dream?"

Lady Black Cat, seeing a fellow creature of the strange and supernatural, ran over, leaped onto the glowing white shell, spread her four limbs to grip it tightly, and poked her coal-ball-like head out to look.

Her vantage point rose, and the scene further away came into view.

Millet Dream, and... it was him!

That cultivator named Chen Xuan!

Lady Black Cat’s gem-like eyes widened, and subconsciously, her mouth hung open in shock, forming a circle: "Why is he here!"

"The rude little fish-stealing thief is about to die..."

The old white turtle, unaware of the Black Cat’s arrival, muttered to itself: "The Millet-Dream Qi stirs the rolling dust of the mortal world, causing all past memories to flood out at once. Even those with a firm disposition would instantly sink into a slumber, unable to break free."

"Tsk, the fish-stealing thief is only eighteen years old. He even commits the frivolous act of stealing a fish from an old man; his mind is immature, so he is even less capable of resisting."

Long ago, it had followed the scent of the precious fish to find Chen Xuan. Seeing him acting like he was about to do something big, it had followed him here out of curiosity, only to watch a grand show.

Under the moonlight, the disheveled Wang Chan of the Millet Dream had already reached Chen Xuan: "To die by my hand does not shame you..."

The cyan glow at his fingertips tapped toward Chen Xuan’s heart.

The old white turtle watched intently and scoffed again:

"The little fish-stealing thief started out decisively, appearing to have a firm temperament, daring to actively seek trouble with the Millet Dream, only to be instantly restrained by the Millet-Dream Qi and reveal his inadequacy. A hollow man... how laughable, how laughable."

Earlier, it had thought the thief’s personality suited its old tastes and had considered letting him go, not begrudging the theft of the fish. But it had clearly misjudged him; he was a man who started with a roar and ended with a whimper, a person of empty appearance.

Lady Black Cat turned her head and cast a side-eye at the muttering old white turtle, thinking: "You old fool, what do you know?"

She did not understand why Chen Xuan had suddenly appeared here, nor did she know what role he would play.

But she knew one thing, for the Small Underworld had told her:

Millet Dream.

Will die tonight.